If you are one of the many people waiting anxiously for the BlackBerry Torch 9850/60, you'll want to have a look at the video above. This video takes another look at the 9860, showing off the hardware as well as running through the software a bit. You can also see the new keyboard in action, in both portrait and landscape modes. The device seems really responsive overall, from what we can see, and the keyboard looks like it's easy to type on. I'm not a huge fan of virtual keyboards, but I think this might grow on me. Thanks for posting this in the forums sridharsuresh!

Weren't they supposed to out the date today? I've been harassing them all day on twitter cause as far as I was concerned, that tweet they sent out yesterday was pretty self explanatory. It's 9:45pm and still nothing. Terrible. But nevertheless, this Monaco looks fabolous. And the kyeboard looks better then the torch's keyboard.

No physical keyboard...no new Torch for me - guess my 9800 will be the first & last Torch I use. Gonna go with the Bold 9900 (unless there's Torch version that comes with PK - then's it's a delimma for me - ha!).

No no no, there are going to be two new torches: some with sliding keyboards and some without!

It's really quite simple. You see there's going to be 2 models of "Blackberry Bold-without-a-third-name" that have portrait keyboards but are slightly different sizes. These are not to be confused with the two "Blackberry Bold Torch" models, one with a keyboard and one without.

Of course you could wait for the Curves to come out which at a minimum will have a traditional and all-touch screen version. These will have the same camera as all new BB's and will be all but indistinguishable from their "Bold" counterparts so people will not know you have a cheaper model! They will be newer but slower with worse resolution on the screen, you know, because people have come to expect that newer phones from the same company should get worse.

Seriously. Two Torch releases, making up for what the Torch was supposed to be. I see a 9990 coming out, RIM saying that's what the Bold 9900 should have been. Will they ever learn the error of their behind the times devices?? Damn.

I can only shake my head, the BB line(s) becomes even more incomprehensible!

So now there is going to be two "Bolds" without a second name that are slightly different sizes but both with keyboards and both what people typically think of when they hear "Blackberry." Then there are two "Blackberry Bold TORCHES" where the one with the bigger model number is actually missing the keyboard all together. Then they'll likely be a couple of Curves lying around that are cheaper, have a cameras with the same number of pixels, but no immediately apparent reason why they costs less. None will be labeled 3 or 4G, although the GSM phones might be 3.5. And as a final blow the better "Bold" products come out first, so when the curves show up they'll be newer yet less powerful!

Huh?

But it's ok, there is a tablet that goes with all this that's joined with something called "bridge" that sorta kinda is like tethering but it really isn't, except you can't get email or your calender without bridging, and can't access the web without tethering or Wifi, except of course if you're using the Bridge Browser and on a carrier that lets you use the Bridge Browser without considering it tethering, except it isn't tethering it's bridging, and therefore slower.

AND if you're in a 3rd party store that sells CDMA and GMS flavors of the same BB's for ATT and Verizon you have to realize the model numbers for the CDMA phones are 10-30 more than the GSM counterparts, but otherwise identical. And what ever you do DON'T look at the prepaid phones, those Curves that cost more and are older...

Half-Baked ideas, no matter how good, are still raw in the middle!!! Get it together BB!!!

RiM just release the damn phone:( These teaser videos are making it worse. I year ago I wanted this phone and I still do. But it seems to me that this envy of replacing my current storm will pass if it just doens't come out.

And RIM the sooner this get's relase the better it will be at Chritsmas. 0$ on a 3 year contrat from Telus, yes I'm a dreamer...

Hmm, impressive that there wasn't an hourglass every flippn minute :) But the one thing I would have wished to see is whether or not the so-called browser is actually a real browser. Browsing the internet on a BB is anything else but fun - I wonder if this has been rectified in OS 6.1 aka 7.0 (rolls eyes).

Research in Motion may be building itself a quiet ‘Storm’ as it moves its Verizon-branded BlackBerry Storm franchise to a more carrier-agnostic edition of the touchscreen slate BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone. The Torch 9860 is most recently seen with an AT&T-branded wallpaper, though AT&T branding isn’t found on the hardware. Given that AT&T has a strong relationship with BlackBerry-maker RIM, and the device will support 3G on the carrier’s network, the Torch 9860 could very well join the Torch slider on AT&T’s GSM network.

In addition to AT&T, T-Mobile is said to also be getting this device as well for its HSPA+ network as early as this week.

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 will support NFC for near field communications, a 1.2 GHz processor, high resolution–for a RIM smartphone device–3.7-inch WVGA display.

Unlike the Torch that was released earlier for AT&T, this one isn’t a slider and will be a touchscreen-only, slate-styled smartphone running the latest BlackBerry 7 operating system.

It’s unclear if a CDMA version of the Toch 9860 will make to Verizon Wireless with the current Torch branding or with a Storm branding.

Being a pearl user for so many years I really got hooked on the suretype compacted keyboard. I loved how the verizon BB storm still kept this in the virtual keyboard. I was a beast on that, this may slow me down. My only real concern is the battery life. Otherwise this thing is tits!

They might still keep the Suretype keyboard as an option, like on the Storm. And the battery looks fairly large on this device (maybe accounting for being thin) but it should be still decent (we can trust RIM on at least this).

Couldn't help but notice that THIS phone is the phone that should have been the Storm all along...

There was so much functionality in the Storm, yet the experience was rarely pleasant. RIM has to focus on their user experience if they want people to WANT to use a touchscreen blackberry.

It's the small things that really bugged me: Unlocking the screen to crazy lag on the device, opening a shortcut to a BBM contact on the homescreen takes about 2 seconds, slow scrolling, slow camera, choppy animations, OS asks to remove apps when I only installed 8 apps because it has 0Kb memory, zooming in was a chore in picture and google maps, long bootup time.

The Storm could do it all, but many things you didn't even want to do on it because it was so unpleasant. lol. All the things it did well were not exciting and all the exciting things it could do were not done well.

TORCH and TOUCH sound too much alike. Sumpin has to give. You can touch the TOUCH but NOT with the slide out key pad. The unlock keys are too touchy.. Should have more resistance or be inset to be less accident prone to undesired actions.
If Verizon gets the Touch, I may yield my Torch to the Touch...

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